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The term mullah is primarily understood in the Muslim world as a term of respect for an educated religious man. Mullah and its variation Mulla have also degenerated into a derogatory term for a Muslim priest, that connotes a semiliterate, backward, often bigoted village imam. "Although, interestingly enough, the holy Quran stridently denounces priesthood (and this would include mullah-hood, too), the mullahs act virtually as priests, and presume it to be their sole prerogative to interpret Islam."
The Strangest Fatwas During the Qajar era.
The term mullah is primarily understood in the Muslim world as a term of respect for an educated religious man. Mullah and its variation Mulla have also degenerated into a derogatory term for a Muslim priest, that connotes a semiliterate, backward, often bigoted village imam. "Although, interestingly enough, the holy Quran stridently denounces priesthood (and this would include mullah-hood, too), the mullahs act virtually as priests, and presume it to be their sole prerogative to interpret Islam."